Build a Resilience Plan That’s Sustainable
Build a Resilience Plan That’s Sustainable
Is your organization as resilient as you think?
Let’s move past the buzzwords and find out.
We’ve all been forced to become more resilient in the wake of the pandemic—as individuals, as employees, as employers and, of course, as organizations. But while all the workshops and town hall discussions are abuzz with great ideas, animated talk, and good intentions, what does it mean to be a truly resilient organization?
We partnered with Economist Impact on a global study of 600 executives across five continents to answer this question. These insights were obtained through survey analysis, desk research, and expert interviews to identify changing interpretations of organizational resilience. Here’s what we uncovered.
Is it time to infuse the many facets of resilience into your organization?
Our research says, Yes.
If done right, strategic resilience leads to significant performance advantages in areas such as customer satisfaction, employee retention and recruitment, risk management, and progress towards ESG (environmental, social, and governance) goals.
The solution? Break down the silos. When disruption strikes, cross-functional teams can more easily diagnose issues, react, and recover compared with siloed teams. To drive resilience, the approach must cascade across all levels within the organization.
No real progress on organizational resilience can be made until we recognize that it requires cross-functional collaboration.
This is the only way to get buy-in up and down the enterprise and across global teams and time zones. However, before that happens, all stakeholders need to agree on what the complex—and often misunderstood—topic of business resilience is.
To be a resilient organization is to be nimble, flexible, and able to withstand both expected and unexpected shocks.
"Disruption is going to be an enduring part of our business world, so therefore, resilience will need to be an enduring part of our business approach."
John Fergurson
Practice Lead - Globalization, Trade and Finance
Economist Impact
Pillar 1: Workplace Transformation
While almost 80% of executives realize that having an agile workforce is a much bigger priority since the pandemic, they have plenty of work to do in these areas:
- True cross-functional collaboration (beyond talking about it)
- Employee engagement
- Prioritization of employee health and well-being
RELATED: Prepare your office for what's next (whatever that may be)
Pillar 2: Operational Efficiency
You’ll only get past the cross-functional planning and collaboration stages when efficiencies and consistent approval processes are embraced up and down the organization:
- Top-down management support
- Full-time resources, including technology, dedicated to fostering resilience
- Proper information-sharing and efficient decision-making processes across functions, teams, and time zones
Sue Trombley
Managing Director of Thought Leadership, Iron Mountain
"Don’t risk your resilience to future shocks through lack of commitment. Stay the course. Continue to keep an eye on the future. Then you and your organization can move forward with confidence that you’re prepared for whatever comes next."
Pillar 3: Data Governance & Security
Over 60% of business leaders see the critical necessity to assess risk and consider new information tools and technologies. Organizations of all sizes have increased investments in hybrid work data protection and security applications. This way, proprietary information and digital assets remain as they should—proprietary.
Pillar 4: Sustainability
The only way to go from pontification to implementation is to educate all ESG stakeholders of the broader business and social implications. Our research shows that 80% of executives agree that having dedicated sustainability staff and resources is more important than ever. ESG strategies and opportunities are not fads or feel-good exercises. They are critical to doing business in an ever-changing world.
RELATED: How ESG thrived through the pandemic and what we learned from it
Having recently celebrated our 70th anniversary, we know quite a bit about resiliency.
Edward Greene, Chief Human Resources Officer at Iron Mountain, asserts that “in creating workforce resilience for the future, businesses must prioritize employee well-being above all else. This requires leaders to truly invest in their workforce through accessible career development programs and a genuine understanding of employee needs and goals. Our employees around the world deserve an empathetic, adaptive, and inclusive approach to charting the future of work.”
According to our findings, a sustainable business resilience plan rests on these seven areas, all of which demand a purposeful strategy to ensure your organization stays resilient into the future:
We recently celebrated our 70th anniversary as a company and a pioneer in global records and information management. Today, thanks to our organizational resilience - learned and practiced through multiple recessions and other global upheavals - Iron Mountain is the trusted partner that companies rely on to help build their own resilience.
By weaving sustainability into every corner of the organization, leaders can collaborate better, empower employees, and extend ESG practices to build stronger relationships with customers and partners. As a result, ESG efforts are imperative to success and modern resilience.
Resilience does not require perfection in its predictions. It does require awareness and analysis, understanding, and, most of all, action. Better to do some things right than to do nothing at all.
Iron Mountain Clean Start®
Clean Start has helped clients reduce their real estate footprint, transform their office space, and navigate the shift to hybrid work environments.
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Smart Sort® Records Management
Smart Sort is a simple and budget-friendly solution to help you finally gain control of your records inventory.
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Secure It Asset Disposition
Go the extra step with your Secure ITAD services with a program that includes secure recycling, remarketing, and destroying retired IT assets that are no longer of use in a sustainable manner.
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Image on Demand
Image on Demand provides an alternative delivery service for retrieval of targeted information from box or open-shelf, as well as a method for
converting paper or film-based information to a digital format, on an as-needed basis.
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Cloud-powered server backup and recovery
Cloud-powered server backup and recovery combines the advantages of backup as a service (BaaS) and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) with the expertise of Iron Mountain data management professionals.
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Information Management and Content Services Solutions
We help automate your document-centric processes and put your data to work so you can make informed business decisions. Whether digitizing physical documents or centralizing already digitized content and rich media, we bring it all together for you.
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Data Centers
Iron Mountain is a leading provider of data center and colocation services that offer secure space, sustainable power, diverse carrier and cloud access for worry-free scalability.
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Contact Iron Mountain
Our Customer Support section can help provide you with the quickest answers to your questions, or feel free to contact us at your convenience.
Contact Iron Mountain
Our Customer Support section can help provide you with the quickest answers to your questions, or feel free to contact us at your convenience.